Coffee news started, by Jean Daum, in Winnipeg, Canada is a weekly news publication that is delivered to restaurants, coffee shops, gift shops, motels and other small eateries and shops.  Coffee news was created to offer small bite size amounts of news and advertising to the customers of individual stores and was built upon the belief that when consuming information and advertising in small amounts you have a better return.

Coffee news has benefits to local advertisers that larger print publications cannot offer.  The ads are less expensive, they advertiser has exclusivity in their area the week there ad is running, ads are being read three times per day as people are eating different meals, all ad sizes are the same allowing fair exposure and the reader typically reads the entire print due to it’s small size. 

One unique component to this business is the home based nature.  This franchise was designed to allow a person to start a desktop publishing company from home.  As with any franchise you have access to the system that has proven to work.  From ad copy, to print layout, vendor contacts, marketing cooperatives, ad slicks and support the Coffee News Franchise allows you to start with no experience. 

This franchise system is a good part time business for someone looking to make some extra income.  However, looking at the model it is limited to the growth you can achieve.  As a local publication you will be limited to your ability to grow locally and will not have the ability to expand beyond 20 licenses.

The cost for the franchise fee is $8000 and is good for four years.  In addition to the up front fee you will pay an ongoing fee of $80 per week for each license you are awarded. 

It is important to fully evaluate all businesses prior to making a decision.  Understanding the strengths and the weaknesses of the model will allow for you to position yourself for business success rather than business failure.

One of the numbers we have been waiting for is national healthcare spending. You will remember there are few controls on spending included in the Affordable Care Act, and those that will have an impact are not due to come into force until 2014. Despite this, there was only a marginal increase in 2010. In fact, it was the second-smallest increase over the last fifty years. So what factors have brought us to this point? Obviously, the consistently high levels of unemployment have reduced family incomes. Add in the fear of unemployment and those still in work have been paying down their debts and refusing discretionary spending. To maintain their profitability, insurers have been passing on more costs to us through higher deductibles and co-payments. More employers have been cutting their health benefits and passing on more of the cost to their employees. The net effect has been a significant reduction in the use of medical services. We have refused to consult physicians as often. We delay going to hospital until our conditions are too serious to ignore. We have been asking for fewer prescriptions. The result is the spending per head of population was $8,402 in 2010.

The effect of this on the healthcare services sector and the health insurance industry has been profound. Faced with declining revenues and knowing that families do not have the cash or savings to spend freely, they have held their costs. The pharmaceutical industry has been hardest hit. Many drugs have now run out of patent protection and generic drugs mean big savings to us. Big Pharma is also struggling because fewer new drugs are coming through the pipeline. Unless there are some scientific breakthroughs soon, the profitability of drug manufacture will decline dramatically.

The result for us at a national level is mostly good news. The rise of insurance rates has slowed significantly. Although you may have seen increases in your last renewal notices or your employer may have passed on more of the cost to you, the trend is in your favor. Should the trend continue, you will see your costs falling. Why so? Because almost 6 million people fell out of private insurance in 2009. A further 3.7 million discontinued insurance in 2010. This is not sustainable and, to counter the trend, the health insurance quotes for 2012 will moderate if not fall. This is not to raise false hopes with the promise of cheap health insurance tomorrow. But simply to reflect an economic reality that, when we are a stone, we cannot be forced to give up blood to the insurance industry.

CNBC investing could be interpreted in many ways; it could be that you are involved in trading using CNBC stocks. Well, it is a media entity and you are probably investing your time watching their updates from time to time relative to your business because it is naturally a business oriented news media. Having CNBC investing is a having a guide at which you will be making a decision in your business. CNBC investing almost covers all business entities around the world.

Source for Business Information

The network is a good source on a daily basis on business, they are very informative and you could have smart decisions using their guidance and publications. They are not biased that is why they are entrusted to inform business enthusiast ahead of time the things or scenarios on a particular country where status of that countries stocks are known and the trending of their markets. CNBC investing is purely of business concerns, with less of the other side of the news being of second priority as their slogan would say “first in world business”. Practically CNBC investing is a good source of business news.

People who gets bored with watching business news are people who do not have much concern about business, they may even say it’s none of their business where in fact, business news is suppose to be everybody’s business. Just take a look at what happened to the economy the recent years, the business community went down and it dragged a lot of people affected much of the living conditions. A lot of people didn’t saw that coming, not even some of the speculators in the stock market. A lot of businesses needed to close down, mass lay-offs of various companies took effect it was one of the worst conditions experienced not just in the business world but the whole country and eventually the whole world particularly economies that are tied with the economy of the United States.

Our Involvement

Now, what can we do to contribute to the development of the economy, this would rather be something that many people would say “leave it to the economists” but we are actually a part of it. This does not suggest that you watch CNBC investing news regularly or any other news media pertaining to business. What I am trying to tell you is that we can contribute by spending on what we need and save more for tomorrow; if you can think of something that you can earn from aside from employment, the better. There are times when your country would need you more than you need it, the successes of the individual in a country is also its success, it will not have many money if you don’t patronize what it offers. And how can you buy if you have nothing? Do you have to rely on your country to give you something all the time, think out of the box and improvise on how you would earn more than what employment can offer, CNBC investing may help.

Google Places Business Listings is trying to insure that it is top dog among the Local Search Engines real soon. They just have so many ideas that are so clever, useful, and inexpensive. This one could be called the Twitter of local search.

Since you, as a marketer or business owner should be checking your Google Places Analytics daily or at least weekly to see trends and make revisions in your strategy for both Google Places and your other online advertising, you can quickly put up a news piece in the box in the upper right hand of your Google Analystics page, just under the “Post it to your place page.” And since Google seems like they forgot how to name things after they created the great name Google, I’ll name this for them. Google Places News Flash.

Now your News Flash will appear on the listing in a highly visible location just under the major items such as name, address, and category.

This is the easiest, fastest way to generate a following yet. Now just watch how Google integrates this into their other products. But for now, local business owners have yet another reason to love Google Places. Use this idea to put up the daily special at a restaurant, or the standings in the Tour de France for a bike shop. How about giving a one hour special for any retailer, and you give the special at the same time every day. You can even use it just to proclaim the most important aspect of your business’s special niche or reason for existence.

The possibilities are limitless, and you can add a link to your website, blog, or other URL just as I did above.

Marketing is one of your businesses most important tasks. Make sure you are getting your message across.

One great way to do this is to use newspaper inserts in your advertising campaign.

First, decide where you are going to advertise. I use the smaller weekly newspapers instead of the bigger daily papers. The weekly papers are usually much cheaper.

My weekly paper only charges about $40.00 per 1000 inserts.

Another reason to use inserts is that you can target specific zip codes.

For example, in the 78209 zip code you run an advertisement focused on businesses, while running an advertisement targeting residential customers in the 78248 zip code.

This is a powerful method of targeting your marketing messages.

The benefits don’t stop there! With a display ad you only get a small space to promote your products or services. With inserts you get as much space as you need.

You can produce a single double sided page or a multi-page insert. Which do you think has the greatest chance of getting your message to the most customers?

Display Ads All Look the Same

To me, almost all display ads look the same. How do you get your message to stand out from the crowd? You use bold text, borders, and huge headlines work to draw attention to your advertisement. However, they still must compete with every other ad in their section.

Inserts Stand Out

All of these tactics work with inserts, but you have much less competition.

Tip: Use colored paper to make your insert stand out even more!

How do you use inserts to promote your business?

1. Select the markets you desire to target and develop the insert targeting that particular market segment.

2. Locate those markets by zip code.

3. Print the inserts at your local printer.

4. Deliver your inserts to the newspaper and they will insert them into the papers going to the zip codes you select.

For my business, a typical insert campaign looks like this. Five thousand insert divided between three zip codes. Each zip code receives a targeted message printed on bright gold paper with black ink.

The cost is about $80.00 per thousand. Forty dollars to the newspaper and $40.00 to have the inserts printed. I write my own advertising copy. Total cost is about $400.00 per run.

My experience is that I get a much better return with inserts than with display advertising.

The key to an effective marketing campaign is to target your customers with multiple exposures. One shot marketing just doesn’t cut it!

Tip: Create an insert that gives your customers information they want to keep for reference later. Consider a short information booklet to accomplish this. One 11 x 17 inch piece of paper makes an inexpensive, but effective four page booklet! See my article Marketing Your Business with Tips Booklets.

With so many Americans being affected by the current credit crunch, myself included, people everywhere are struggling to not only make ends meet but simply to hang on to what they already have. The key to such financial stability is not in credit cards, but rather staying current on your bills with the help of payday loans which can make all the difference.

Know the Facts About Payday Loans

Despite what you may have heard about payday loans, you deserve to know the facts before you pursue any kind of financial options. These loans are also known as cash loans, cash advances and paycheck advances. They are relatively small loans compared to those operated by big banks and as such, they are meant to be that needed push to help get you through the month, especially in times of financial strain.

They are entirely separate from your bank and credit meaning the entire process is handled by a lender. With this separation of bank and credit status, many people who normally could not qualify for a loan can apply for a payday loan and get the necessary help they need.

You’ve probably heard all kinds of stories about debt consolidation. Some of them portray it as the simplest and best way out of debt. Others paint a disturbing picture of escalating debt that leads inevitably to financial disaster.

The reality, of course, lies somewhere in-between. Debt consolidation may or may not be the best way for you to get out of debt. It all depends on a wide range of factors: not just how much you owe, but how much you earn and what kind of debts you’re thinking about consolidating, as well as your attitude to debt and to money in general.

There are, however, a few ‘dos and don’ts’ that should apply to just about anyone.

DO

Do talk to a professional debt adviser if you’re thinking about taking out a debt consolidation loan. You need someone who can help you explore your options, so make sure you talk to a company that doesn’t just provide consolidation loans. Maybe all you need is some advice on budgeting more effectively, so you can handle your debts yourself.

Do think carefully about the repayment term for your debt consolidation loan, if you take one. In general, the longer the repayment term, the lower your monthly payments will be, but the more you’ll pay in total, as your debt will spend longer accruing interest.

Do find out whether you’d be better off with a debt consolidation loan or a debt consolidation mortgage. A mortgage might give you a lower APR (Annual Percentage Rate) and more time to repay the debt, but you’d be putting your home at risk.

DON’T

Don’t keep on struggling if you really can’t afford your debt repayments. If it’s obvious you need help, ask for it – a debt adviser should be able to help you decide whether you need a professional debt solution, and if so, which one.

Don’t assume that the right solution for someone else is the right one for you. Just because debt consolidation worked (or didn’t work!) for someone you know doesn’t mean it will (or won’t!) work for you.

Don’t keep on using your credit cards, store cards and/or overdraft facility once you’ve taken out a debt consolidation loan. This is a real danger of consolidation – if you run up fresh debts, ‘replacing’ the ones you’ve just paid off with the consolidation loan, you’ll be in a much worse situation than you were before you took the loan out, as you’ll have to make payments to it every month as well as to your new debts! It might be a good idea to keep one credit card for emergencies, but you should never consolidate your debts without sitting down and thinking about how those debts got so high in the first place. Are there any mistakes you could avoid from now on? Is there anything about your habits you need to change?

Theses ways become even more valuable in tough economic periods. So saving on auto insurance gets possible if you use internet, search multiple providers and quote as many times as you can. Shopping around can save you dozens of bucks every month. Online car insurance quotes are free and quick, you can compare the features of several plans offered by a number of local agencies before applying for a policy.. Saving money on insurance premiums becomes real for a smart shopper, so take your chance now.. As you look through the plans try to inquire about everything you are unsure about via personal calls and chats. Thus you will be armed when comparing companies and could locate the best auto insurance rates available taking all the details into account.

If you are ready to start reviewing competitive auto insurance quotes you will access them with a few mouse clicks. Though it could take more time on comparing and analyzing – as a result you are to save hundreds of dollars every year on your insurance plus you have more chances to find a plan working best just for you.

If you still hesitate you may want to review what benefits does comparison shopping give..

• Greater savings. With a range of plans from different insurance companies, chances are there’s always something better out there for your budget. Noting down quotes from all trusted providers lets you calculate actual annual savings on car insurance premiums. Don’t forget to compare providers in terms of discounts offer and if you are always eligible.
• More chances to pick the right policy. Besides, comparing rates helps you to get the auto insurance policy which meets your needs to the maximum. Whether it is a teen-driver policy or a accurate driver with a good record, a person with excellent marks at driving school, a truck or a sport car in the end – plans should be chosen appropriately and fairly. This depends on the services offered by specific companies. Make sure you check that certain services and features of your first necessity are included in the plan you have found by the most affordable rate. If necessary make new searchers since quoting is free and you will finally get your way to the desired combination of rates and features.

The notion of quantifying the costs for customers in order to illustrate how much money they are currently wasting or will be wasting if they do not do business with you is a key element in the process of getting a customer to buy from you. This sounds obvious but can be overlooked by many people attempting to trade with a customer.

This process allows someone not only to demonstrate how much money can be saved but also alleviates their concerns about spending money on one’s particular product or service.

Various areas may be addressed during this part of the process however it is not always easy to uncover where a customer’s money is being spent.

Getting customers to realise the value of one’s solution has to begin with asking the right questions; in order to do this one needs to identify the customer’s typical costs and then decide whether or not they could be reduced or eliminated through the use of one’s product or service.

A good example of this would be health care where outsourcing has become a hot topic, as well as with business people and politicians.

There is a natural compulsion to use lower-wage workers abroad who have the same skills as those at home, although this brings with it the unexpected.

The pros of this are that savings will be made in direct costs and staff may be able to be eliminated from the payroll.

The cons are, depending on the industry, that the internet may go down, there will be a lack of rapport between the patient and doctor, there is a lack of accountability, and there would be no confidentiality.

Another good example of this is the construction industry.

Selling bricks is not all that exciting, but it is possible to quantify costs. For example, take someone who sells bricks to homeowners building new houses and construction companies creating new neighbourhoods.

It is very difficult to convince either of these parties to use bricks because they are more expensive than other building materials.

However, presenting the argument in a different way changes the picture:

Bricks hold heat better than other materials so in the long run costs will be saved on heating bills

As opposed to rendering, which needs to be replaced after years of wear and tear, bricks last a lifetime

Studies have shown that, everything being equal, a brick house will sell for fifteen per cent more than a house with rendering

For construction companies, bricks are easier to work with and easier to store than other materials.

In summary using this cost justification system, it is possible to translate the features of a product into considerable benefits and thus largely override the raw, up-front cost of the product; value can be imparted to a customer other than front line savings. However, it must be remembered that coming from the outside it is always easier to see and understand the concept and after all, it is their money that is being spent.

In 1969, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross introduced the five stages of grief in her book “On Death and Dying”: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. If you have a large student loan balance, then you’ve probably experienced some “grief” and are no stranger to the five stages. If you are in the “Acceptance” stage, this article is for you!

Being in the Acceptance stage is a good place to be. It means that: you have discovered that deferrals and forbearances are not forever (Denial stage), you have stopped blaming others for getting what you assumed to be a “free ride” (Anger stage), you have learned that you can not discharge your loan through bankruptcy (Bargaining stage), you have stopped drinking heavily and watching re-runs of the Gilmore Girls (Depression stage), and you now accept your financial responsibility and are prepared to do something about it. You are not going to find any “magic bullets” in this article, but you will find an effective strategy for paying off your loan in the shortest amount of time.

Step 1 – Organize Loan in a Spreadsheet
To better manage your student loan, you must completely understand what you are up against. Creating a spreadsheet will give you insight into how your loan works and show you the positive results of making extra principal payments. To create a functional spreadsheet, you must understand the terms of your loan and know how to organize this information into a spreadsheet. If you are not a spreadsheet user, you will find that learning the basics is easy.

To begin building your spreadsheet, you will need the following information about your loan: current balance, interest rate, payment amount, and how the interest is calculated. This will allow you to create an interactive spreadsheet that will calculate how much interest accrues daily and provide you with a daily balance.

How the interest is calculated may require some digging. You will find this information by reviewing your loan documents, going to the lender’s website, or calling your lender’s customer service number. The number of days used to calculate interest on a loan is known as basis. For example, a mortgage is typically calculated using “30/360″, which means a year is assumed to have 360 days and a month is assumed to have 30 days. Thus, when you make a mortgage payment, your interest will be based on 30 days. Student loans typically use the actual number of days in the month and a year with 365 days (actual/365). Some loans may use an actual/365.25 convention; each loan is different. On a loan with an actual/365 basis, you will pay less interest in a short month (one that has less than 31 days) than in a month with 31 days.

Feeling lost yet? Don’t worry, because once we put it all together it will make sense. I’ll also explain how to test your spreadsheet to make sure it’s functioning properly. The initial setup of a spreadsheet is the most challenging step.

On the top of your spreadsheet, insert the key pieces of information regarding your loan, such as: beginning balance, interest rate, monthly payment, payment due date, and the interest rate factor. The interest rate factor is the interest rate divided by the number of days in the year. Again, every lender and type of loan is different in terms of how many days in the year are used. The informational part of the spreadsheet is important because you want to clearly see the variables that impact your loan.

After you input the key pieces of information, you can begin the construction of your interactive spreadsheet. Your goal is to create a spreadsheet that shows when each payment is posted, how much of each payment is applied to principal and interest, and what the ending (or current) balance is. The column names that you will create are (from left to right): Payment Date, Principal, Interest, and New Balance. Below is a more detailed explanation of these columns:

• Payment Date – This is the date that your payment is actually posted to your account. This is critical since the interest on your student loan is likely based on the actual number of days between payments.
• Principal – This will be a formula that equals your payment amount less the interest portion of your monthly payment. It’s the part of your payment that will be applied to reduce your balance.
• Interest – You need to know how your lender calculates interest on your loan. Typically, it is based on the actual number of days multiplied by the previous month’s balance multiplied by the interest rate factor. Your Excel formula will be: (current payment date minus previous payment date) x previous month’s balance x the interest rate factor.
• New Balance – This is equal to your previous month’s balance less the principal portion of your current payment.

If your lender has a website that allows you to see information about your loan and/or make payments, establish online access immediately. Print the balance history of your loan and begin building your spreadsheet using your first payment as the starting point. The balance history should show how much of each payment was applied to principal and interest. This is how you can test your spreadsheet to make sure it is working properly. Check to see if your formula results match the history on the website. If they do not match you will need to troubleshoot to figure out why. It could be that the lender made an error, but more than likely the error is on your spreadsheet. If you have a friend or family member who is an Excel user, see if they can give you some assistance. The web is a great resource as well.

The real power of a spreadsheet is that you can simulate what-if scenarios easily. For example, let’s say that you receive a large cash windfall. You can input this figure into your spreadsheet and easily see what the results of such a big pay-down would be. You might learn that if you made this extra principal reduction payment your loan would be paid off in ten years instead of 15. You may find this very motivating. However, if you don’t have a tool such as a spreadsheet to generate this type of information, then you might choose do something else with your money.

Step 2) – Strategies to Accelerate Payoff
Congratulations on building a spreadsheet where you can track your student loan balances and payments. Tracking a loan in this manner gives you control over the loan. Getting a statement in the mail every month and not really understanding why your balance moved so little is not motivating and adds to a sense of hopelessness (and you really don’t want to go back to the cheap beer and Gilmore Girls re-runs). Here are some specific strategies to help you pay off your loan quickly:

Pay a little extra each month – We’ve all heard this before, especially when talking about mortgages. Well, the same holds true for student loans. When you make a monthly payment, part of that payment is applied to interest, and the rest to principal. My suggestion: Pay the amount of extra principal that will result in your loan balance having two zeros at the end of it. For example, if your balance will be $37,845.21 after you make your next payment, pay an extra $45.21 to make you principal balance $37,800. Getting your loan to an even hundred dollar figure is a strategy to encourage you to pay extra each month.

To facilitate this strategy, I suggest you pay your loan electronically. You have no control over when your payment is posted when you mail it. When you make an online payment, you typically select the payment post date. In addition, there will likely be a section to input the extra amount of principal you wish to pay.

The benefit of paying more than your minimum payment is that when you make your next loan payment, a bigger portion will be applied towards the principal and less towards the interest (compared to if you did not pay extra the prior month). If you continue to pay more than the minimum due, this effect will be compounded each month. The result is that you will pay off your loan significantly faster than if you only made the minimum payment. That is because as your balance decreases, the amount of interest you pay decreases. More of each payment will be applied to reducing the principal. This effect is easy to see when you track it on a spreadsheet, which is why doing so is an effective strategy.

Make a plan to pay “a lot extra” on a regular basis – If you get a tax refund each year, apply it to your student loan balance. This will have a tremendous impact on how quickly your loan is repaid. If you get a bonus each year, apply that as well. Any windfall, or instance of “found money”, should be used to reduce your balance. It is not uncommon for people to treat “found money” differently. “Found money” is often wasted on “splurge” items. Resist this urge! Use any extra money, no matter where or how you got it, to pay down your student loan balance!

In summary, the steps needed to help you pay off your loan quicker are:
1) Utilize a spreadsheet to track your loan so that you can see how much of each payment goes to principal and interest. Perform what-if scenarios so that you can see the impact of paying down your loan and formulate a strategy for doing so.
2) Pay a little extra each month. One strategy is to pay an extra amount such that your balance is an even increment of $100.
3) Commit to making large payments when you have a cash windfall, such as an income tax refund or bonus. While this may not provide an immediate reward, the long-term consequences will be sizeable. Time truly does fly, and what may seem like a huge balance now can be reduced to zero in a lot less time than you think, but only if you make it a priority and a goal.

Paying off a student loan can seem overwhelming. However, if you employ the strategies provided here, you’ll learn you can succeed more quickly than you ever imagined. You can apply these same ideas to your mortgage and other loans. Gaining control of your finances is empowering. And by the way, I started this article by referencing the five stages of grief. If you die, please know that in most cases your loan will die with you – unless you consolidated with a spouse. In that case, unfortunately, the loan will live on!

By Paul Anacki